Up until now, agrochemical active ingredients having a bactericidal activity, pesticidal activity, acaricidal activity, herbicidal activity or the like, have been used by formulating them into various easy-to-use shapes. In the case where the agrochemical active ingredient is lipophilic, the agrochemical active ingredient was used in such a manner that the agrochemical active ingredient was mixed with an emulsifiable concentrate composition to obtain an emulsion (agrochemical emulsifiable concentrate composition), then the resulting emulsion was diluted with water.
In general, an emulsifiable concentrate composition contains an organic solvent which is able to dissolve an agrochemical active ingredient and a surfactant which is an emulsifier. As for the surfactant, usually, an anionic surfactant having excellent emulsifiability has been used. However, if a cationic agrochemical active ingredient was used together with the resulting agrochemical emulsifiable concentrate composition to be diluted, the anionic surfactant and the cationic agrochemical active ingredient may form a salt, thereby causing flocculation.
Meanwhile, as for a surfactant other than the anionic surfactant, which has good emulsifiability, polyoxy alkylene aryl phenyl ether which is a nonionic surfactant has been known (Patent Documents 1 to 7). However, in order to attain sufficient emulsifiability, it was necessary to use a large amount of the surfactant even when using this surfactant.
In recent years, it has been required to use environmentally-friendly agricultural chemicals. For example, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has restrictions on the content of polyoxy alkylene aryl phenyl ether contained in the emulsifiable concentrate composition.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H10-72305
[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-239102
[Patent Document 3] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-514793
[Patent Document 4] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2003-128501
[Patent Document 5] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H6-305915
[Patent Document 6] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H9-52810
[Patent Document 7] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2001-270801